Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/416

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
400
V. THE SUN HERO.

The place referred to in these verses was beyond doubt hard by the deu-lynn, or two lakes near Bala Deulyn, in the valley of Nantỻe in Carnarvonshire. The old pronunciation of the name Nantỻe was Nantỻeu, meaning Nant-Lleu, the Valley or Glenn of Lieu; but when it came to be pronounced as a single word accented on the first syllable, the u was liable to be dropped off, as in other words: compare bore for boreu, 'morning,' and gele for geleu, 'a leech;' but we need not rely on this alone, for there is evidence ready to hand in one of the Verses of the Graves, which, reduced to a consistent spelling, runs thus:[1]

Y beᵭ yngorthir Nantỻeu
Ni wyr neb i gynneᵭfeu
Mabon fab Modron gleu

The grave in the upland of Nantỻe,
Nobody knows its properties:
It is Mabon's, the swift son of Modron.

The scribe of the Mabinogi makes the valley called after Lleu into Nant y Llew, 'the Lion's Glen,' as he was led to do so by his habit of making Lleu's name into Llew, and confirmed in his error by misinterpreting the Nantllev or Nantlleu of the manuscript he had before him. This incidentally proves that he had no personal acquaintance with the neighbourhood of Snowdon; and the same want of familiarity with North Wales is suggested by his once making into Cynwael the Ffestiniog river Cynvael, now called the Kynval, in Merioneth.[2] From the same lack of acquaintance with the district, he wrote also Dinỻef[3]

  1. Published in the Myvyrian Arch. of Wales, Vol. i. 78, where it is printed as follows:

    'Y Bed yngorthir Nanllau
    Ny uyr neb y gynneddfeu
    Mabon vab Modron glau.'

  2. R. B. Mab. p. 74.
  3. R. B. Mab. p 71.